29
Jan
Intuition
Break-Ins and Intuition :
Many years ago, in the fall of 2012, I came home from work to an unusual scene of my jewelry strewn across the floor all the way from my basement door into my bedroom as I walked inside. Instantly, I knew someone had been in my house. I had no idea whether or not they were still there, but signs of an expedient departure were telling me they may very well be close by. I grabbed my dog and swiftly headed back out to my car. I owned a gun, but it was in my new safe in my bedroom sitting on the floor. The safe was covered with a lace doily on top and a pile of Good Housekeeping magazines and my Bible. I had put some tall boots in front of it so it would not be totally visible to anyone else as to what it was, never thinking it would be a thief. It was not yet bolted to the floor. I was very new to concealed carry. I worked for the county and we were not “allowed” to carry at work.
I drove three New York minutes down the road to the diner where my son worked and we called the police. I was shaking uncontrollably thinking they may have broken into the safe and had my gun. I remembered that I heard a door slam as I entered and thought it was from the pressure of opening the front door which caused the upstairs basement door to slam shut. When the police arrived, within minutes, we met them at the house and they went in and cleared all of the rooms, the basement, around the outside of the house, and in the woods on our property.
It happened twice before, but we weren’t aware of it. We thought one of our son’s shady friends had taken the change from our change jar and we blamed him, but had no proof. Also, our wood pile had shrunk quite a bit, but we dismissed it, never thinking someone would steal firewood. This was actually the 3rd time someone had come to our home and stole from us.
Fortunately, I was able to solve the crimes myself within a few sleepless weeks and presented my facts to the Captain of the local police department. There had been a string of robberies in the area and I had overheard a lady in the coffee shop talk about her house being robbed. A week later another lady at the polling station was talking about her husband being robbed at gunpoint, just up the road. I put my detective hat on and began asking questions. Bingo! The common denominator was a hired painter. We all had the same guy paint the interior of our homes. It took months before the police could nail him, but they did and he was charged and went away on multiple charges.
What I learned was that it can happen to you or me. Listen to your intuition, it’s an internal alarm, and really be situationally aware. I was alerted, not by my dog, because the painter knew him and likely never even barked. Besides he was a loveable black lab. I was alerted by my senses when I saw the jewelry and knew something was not right. It was out of place and my instincts said to “Leave now!” Had I ignored that prompt and gone downstairs to investigate, who knows what may have happened. This painter was an ex-con, a bodybuilder, and turned out he was heavily into drugs.
I was later able to request to be armed at my job at the county clerk’s office where I worked as the pistol licensing clerk and was successful in being able to carry from that point on. I became very interested in the concealed carry laws and seriously began my firearms journey here. Pay attention and follow your intuition that God gave you. It may save your life.
I love The Gift of Fear by DeBecker
This is exactly why I keep wanting to gain more knowledge on being situationally aware (wherever I am) and to continue to train with my gun and other self defense techniques.